A Day's Worth of Twitter

12:32:08 AM - almost went to bed at 11:15 but realized I didn't do a blog post. 75 min later I'm done blogging/cropping pictures. I got distracted.
12:37:33 AM - @lisafilipek you could read outside. I hear people do that. I might try it sometime.
12:42:30 AM - @BodyMediaFIT abductor and adductor are my favorite leg weight exercises. Running is my favorite for cardio.
12:45:59 AM - @mikecherepko I somehow never saw this reply. I kinda forced it. I wanted pink originally. And I got scary yellow.
12:47:28 AM - @MarnieCarlson most of what I blogged is in draft. Need to crop outfit photos. But this week I will have many posts.
01:01:10 AM - @wrkngmomscloset nobody uses it do then we don't use it (google+).
01:02:20 AM - @angelineevans I'm scared to mark all as read. Also I have 100+ blogs on there I haven't looked at in a year. I should unsubscribe.
01:07:51 AM - I stayed up too late. I forgot to eat dinner. First time I remember forgetting to eat dinner but I always stay up too late.
07:28:35 AM - @mikecherepko what does a 90s party entail?
07:58:18 AM - about to go running and already feel weak and partially lightheaded.
01:17:27 PM - 4 frames in and my fingers already hurt
01:31:22 PM - That frame I got a 1. So now 92 after 9 frames.
08:45:18 PM - It is so late and I still have to work, blog about 5 runs, and relax.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.21

Cardigan and Shirt: Limited
Skirt: Express
Belt: Kohl's
Shoes: Kohl's
Necklace: Sears (I think)

I had to go into work for an 8:30 meeting so I couldn't telecommute. My knee was worse than any of the previous days.

Not only did I have to come into work for a meeting but I had to go to building 1 for it. I was wincing in pain as I was walking over.  It was not fun.  Then I get to building 1 and set up my laptop and the phone rings.  It was someone telling me the meeting was no longer in building 1 and I had to get back to building 4 for the meeting.  That sucked.

In that meeting, I got even more work. I'm already fully loaded.  As soon as that meeting was done, I went back to my desk to write up my performance review. I had 30 minutes until my meeting.  Most people spend hours writing up their review. I spent 20 minutes.  I knew better than to try to redock my computer or it would have wasted 20 minutes of it.  My meeting went fine but I still have to put it into notes in the system.  I just didn't have the time.  I have too many meetings that I can't get work done.

The day flew by.    As the day went on my knee got a lot better.  It went from constant pain to no pain. But because it was so bad earlier, I decided that I should not go to Body Pump.
Then I ended up staying at work too late.

On top of instead of inside the snapple box

I ordered Pizza Hut online before leaving work then went and picked it up.  The one pizza had extra sauce instead of easy on the sauce. I checked the order and I ordered it that way. Ugh.

We ate and watched TV then watched a little more TV because I needed a break.  Then I finished planning for the Stampin' Up class. I was done with all the cards and made one more box but then I had to take photos of all the pictures and put it into the tutorial. That always takes so much longer than I think.  I was exhausted by 11:30 when I was done prepping.  I didn't make time to carry the supplies down stairs.  I never got to cleaning up. I figure if it's slightly a mess, that's OK.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

03:07:13 PM - Giant Eagle in Wexford is too crowded. I hate it.
03:18:45 PM - This nicely sliced and packaged cheese makes the crowds worth it. http://t.co/9E7MATvP
03:59:43 PM - @MarnieCarlson where is a good place to buy them? And should they be skinny jeans?
04:01:20 PM - Giant Eagle should have benches around the store. I need a bench. Or many throughout. Grocery shopping is tiring.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.20

It has been awhile since I wore this dress so I figured it was time to wear it again.  I feel like my outfit was all new except the shoes but when I thought about it, I guess it's a lot older than I thought.

Poly watched me take my daily picture out the window. Then when I came back in she moved to watch me again.  I followed the other malibu maxx down 228 again. We are always just a few cars apart. I am always shocked by this since I leave home for work at different times. 

I worked. I was so busy at one point I caught myself banging my head off my desk. I'm not quite sure how that happened but I swear work is going to give me a heart attack before I'm 30. I just have far too much to get done and then far too many meetings so then I don't have any time to get any of it done.

After work I went to a WIN scrapbooking event.  I only took some supplies and I talked to some people and left early.  I had to get home to plan my Stampin' Up Class.

Well I got home and made dinner and watched some TV.  I did finally get to planning and ended up deciding to quit doing that at 11PM. I thought about booting up my work computer to do work at that point but decided against it. Sometimes the computer takes 30 minutes to get ready to be able to do work and by that point it would be bedtime. I was already falling asleep.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

08:51:49 AM - Today is awful. My power cord is in the room where I had a meeting last yesterday. So I had to come in to work on telecommuting day.
08:52:25 AM - Traffic was awful and apparently at 8:30 people like to drive 30 on 228 instead of the speed limit (which is 45 and 50).
05:35:36 PM - 2.33 miles into the walk with Dave. Already ran 2.5 with Jen.
11:20:17 PM - @mikecherepko should I attempt to buy colored jeans this weekend?
11:23:52 PM - @angelineevans why does he refuse the new iPad?

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.19

Shirt and Skirt from Limited. 

Shoes from Famous Footwear

Necklace from Lia Sophia.

Boy do I hate how I look in flats. I hate how I stand in flats.

I was so tired so I kept hitting snooze. Dave tried talking to me to get me to wake up.  At one point he said on a scale of 1-10 for cuteness, Poly was a 36.  When I woke up, I said she was a 36. She sure was cute.
I worked. I worked until about 7.  I stopped at Giant Eagle on the way home to buy a couple ingredients.

I got home, cooked a quick dinner, ate, and then started working again.  I worked for 2 hours.
Then I started planning for my Stampin' Up Party.  I was up until 12:30.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

12:14:21 AM - @mikecherepko it is a show on demand I have on in the background while I blog. I can't have good shows on or I pay attention to them.
12:15:02 AM - All my clothes have a winter feel. I want some new spring ones or someone to just tell me what to wear.
12:18:30 AM - I also forget how to match. Good thing I have the previous 7 years of daily pics to look at.
07:03:55 AM - Umm so tired.
06:12:02 PM - My stamping party started at 6. Nobody is here. Sigh.
10:07:50 PM - Time to eat dinner!

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.13

Poly watched me take my daily picture.

I was so busy at work. Dave and I went to DiBella's for lunch but I took my packed lunch and ate it there. We bought cookies. I ate a bunch then took the rest to my group at work.

I was supposed to give training at 2.  Around 1 PM it got changed to 3 pm.  At 2:55, I finally finished looking at the slides.  It was the first time I gave the training in 3 years.  Most of the slides were new.

After work Dave wanted to go for a walk but I ended up having to get too much done so we didn't have time. We had an NA-YGN officers team building event at 6pm.  We had dinner and did team trivia. It was fun but boy did it go late.  I got home after 10:30 PM. I was so tired.

50k Professional Photos

I guess when you run 6 laps, you get more than one professional photo.

I missed the photographer on lap one because I was wearing the long sleeve shirt over my number. I tried to lift it up to show him but it was a little too late. He said he'd get me next lap but he didn't know I wanted a million pictures.
My stride and speed were still pretty normal after lap 2 (picture 1)
I remember not wanting to hold my water after the station because the picture would have us with our cups.  Yes that is what I thought about.
I don't even remember the picture with Jen. I guess I was being being dead or talking.
I do remember seeing the photographer when I was going in to finish. I also saw him in the background of the picture Sarah took. I wished he would have taken 2-3 each time like I did when I took professional photos, but then I'm sure other people don't want a million pictures of themselves running.

I wish I was like everyone else. If I was less obsessed with pictures, I'd have a lot more free time on my hands.

I really liked how the photographer stood in slightly different places each lap so the background wasn't exactly the same.  Take a look at the rest of the photos. They are interesting to see.  The ones of the blisters make mine seem like nothing.

I also posted about the race the race already.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

07:38:32 AM - My knee is worse today.
12:25:41 PM - @mikecherepko On Royal Pains they wore patterns or solids. but they wore a bright solid if they wore a solid. I need new clothes. I'm boring
06:23:34 PM - I accidentally ordered extra sauce not light on the sauce :( http://t.co/EVlNu9Og
11:30:42 PM - I finished making the cards and the instruction sheet for tomorrow's class. Tomorrow after work I just need to buy snacks, clean up, set up.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.18.12

 Shirt: F21, Necklace: Lia Sophia, Jeans: Express

I woke up and started analyzing data again and trying to write my blog post on my race. I took little breaks to check email and read facebook.

From 12-4, I stood in front of Walmart collecting money and food for the local food bank.

I got home and had dinner. Dave and I watched TV.  Then I watched TV and typed my blog post until 11:30 PM except the short walk Dave and I took just before dark.  Boy was I tired so it made typing the post seem to take forever.

I was watching Royal Pains while typing my post and every time I looked up, they had on colored jeans.  The jeans look so nice and colorful but I'm scared of color.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

12:46:54 AM - Half the Stampin' Up class is planned.
01:24:35 PM - An ambulance is parked but not in a spot. Later we learn it was so he could get a good wireless signal.
03:18:31 PM - @MarnieCarlson it was at 5 guys
03:21:42 PM - In the past 24 hours 2 people asked me why my calendar ate with my daily picture isn't updated with all of March.
05:24:28 PM - @MarnieCarlson thanks. When did you see me?
05:35:59 PM - @MarnieCarlson h. That is last week. A bit behind. Date is in the title though.
07:31:00 PM - @mikecherepko I'd like pink pants or purple. That is what they wore on Royal pains. Also yellow. But I'm scared. I need patterned shirts.
11:04:17 PM - Well I have an 8:30 meeting with my vp that I'm not ready for (I didn't get the necessary updates from others)
11:05:26 PM - And then I have my final performance review right after that and I haven't written up a thing yet. #notgood
11:06:21 PM - Also I didn't workout again today. I'm such a slacker. Granted my knee is still bad but there are other things to do. Sigh x 10

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.12

I woke up and was tired. I don't like changing the clocks in the spring because I'm so tired.  But then I do like it because I like having more daylight after work. Too bad it's not a win win.

I worked. I was extremely busy.  I went to Body Pump at 5. I wasn't going to go but Jen kept asking me and then I asked Dave if I should go and he said yes.  My knee hurt pretty bad from my run with Kelly. Going down the stairs felt the worst.  I went to pump anyway and I just used lighter weights for the leg tracks.  I impressed myself at class when the instructor was going over the moves for the chest track and I thought based on the moves and the combo that the song was Right Round. Go me. First of all I don't ever know any music ever and then for me to be able to know what song based on the moves is even more of a shocker. We did a mix of old releases and I was shocked that 3 (at least) of the 10 songs were the same as what Kelly had done the previous week. They probably each know 10 more more tracks and so it was just odd to pick the same ones.

Jen and I stood and talked for probably a good 20 minutes after pump.  We have to talk when we can anymore because we never eat lunch together and we're so busy that we don't IM at work.

After all that, I went to a few stores to do some errands. I went to Staples, Lowe's, and Target.
I feel like I got home so late.  I left Target after 7pm.

I ate leftover tuna noodle casserole for dinner. We watched TV.

I wanted to go to sleep at 8:30 but watched TV and blogged a bit until after 11. Then I was really tired. Dave made a comment when he went into bed at 11:15 that I was waiting until he went to sleep. He was right. I feel like if I go in to sleep before him I'm going to sleep way too early no matter the time. Sometimes he falls asleep at 8:30 so if I went to sleep before him that'd be accurate. But then other times he's up past 11:30. (We're old so 11:30 is late on a work night.)

A Day's Worth of Twitter

06:03:16 PM - oh man am I starving. I think I may leave work and go home to eat then work again.
09:58:22 PM - I feel like I need to attempt a longer ultramarathon now. I feel like 50k isn't that long. Any suggestions?

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

Predictions for the 50k

Prior to the race, I put together a plan heavily based on my 20 mile race.  I broke it down by mile but I have  it basically summarized above by loop.

As I mentioned in my long race recap, auto pause was on my watch so the Garmin data was much shorter.

I made up my plan for the race so my pacers knew when to arrive. I thought everything was fast estimates.  Well it looks like it wasn't.  I'm actually surprised the last lap was so slow because it didn't have a water stop at the end and only had the stop at the spigot and the stop at the water stop.

I find it a little bit insane how close my actual time was compared to my predicted time. I was actually faster in the earlier laps and slower in the later laps but it all evened out.  I probably felt a lot worse near the end because I went so fast at the beginning though.

If I had done anything close to what any training plan suggested, perhaps I could have kept up the pace from laps 1, 2, and 3.

Have you ever tried to predict a race time? How close have you been? I think being 49 seconds off in a race over 5 hours is pretty close. Closer than I could ever guess.
Official results: 5:21:10

A Day's Worth of Twitter

07:30:30 AM - I should have taken Advil before bed. I had so much trouble sleeping.
08:09:53 AM - @BodyMediaFIT check out my armband data from yesterday. I ran a 50k to get data like that. 5 new personal bests too. http://t.co/TBqIDsts
08:23:06 AM - Well the race took that long so it was easy to get that many minsRT @BodyMediaFIT: @SmilinColleen Over 5 hours of vigorous activity!!! Wow!
05:14:19 PM - Standing for 4 hours is not a good idea but especially not the day after running an ultra marathon.
08:43:32 PM - colored jeans were in style in 7th grade. Then I had them and nobody did. I got made fun of. Now they are everywhere. I'm afraid of them.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

An Ultramarathon - 50k (3.17.12)

About a minute after I finished.

I ran a 50k.  I only told a couple people about it.  I didn't think I'd finish it so I didn't want everyone knowing about it. I wasn't even 100% sure I'd start the race.  Plus I feel a lot more pressure when I know people know I'm doing it.  My better races have been ones people didn't know about. I think I was more nervous the time I paced Callie in her ultramarathon than in this race.

Overall, I was ahead of my schedule which was really way ahead of my anticipated time. It was really hot. I dumped water on my head for the first time in my life. (I also dumped it on my head for the 5th time in my life.) Not only did I run my first ultramarathon in my life but I also ran it on an injured knee.


Anything over the distance of a marathon is considered an ultramarathon. A marathon is 26.2 miles and a 50k is 31.1 miles. The furthest I ever ran before today was 26.2 miles. The 2nd furthest was 20.22 miles.


My goal for the race was to finish before the cutoff of 7 hours. Officially I got 5:21:10. My best possible "plan" had me finishing at 5:21:59.  I mentioned that my plan was entirely too fast and there was no way I'd finish that fast.  I was pretty close.  At the start of the race, we were told there were 75 runners, 20 of which were female. The youngest was 22 and the oldest was 69 but there were 4 69-year olds. I came in 41st overall ( and was 43rd going into the last lap as seen in the lap results).

A Day's Worth of Twitter

08:47:42 AM - 1/5 done with my race.
01:31:40 PM - I just ran a 50k.
02:00:47 PM - Yay http://t.co/NaE0y8qX
02:25:14 PM - @DaizyCh that is just a finisher medal
04:12:55 PM - ran 31 miles, ate 1 piece of pizza & 2 donuts. I think I should eat more.(I had 1/2 an energy bar prior to the race and energy chews during)
05:29:59 PM - I'm such a little girl. This sunburn isn't even bad but it sure hurts.
05:45:31 PM - I'm bad at google. For a recovery walk the afternoon of a race how long do you walk? based on miles ran? (@TheNewChrissy @RestonStyle)
08:28:41 PM - I'm not going to write my race recap until tomorrow. I'll probably forget all the details but I'm just too tired.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.8

(Dave told me I looked fat in this outfit but maybe it's the 6 lbs I gained in 10 days.)

Earlier in the week I thought they wouldn't be bad but as the week went on, my calendar got booked solid. I don't know how it happened but meetings all day mean I can't get real work done.

I ate lunch at my desk and worked. That was the only spare time I had. I only had time during lunch because I skipped a meeting. The meeting I skipped was the only optional meeting and the only fun meeting. Ahh well.

Then at 4:30 I was finally done with meetings and Jen came over to visit. We talked for almost an hour. It makes up for us never having lunch anymore.

I was going to go to the gym after work and then go to PiYo at the other gym.  Well I didn't go to the gym and just went to 5 Guys on the way home.  Then Dave tricked me knowing my addiction for Dexter and then I missed going to PiYo too.  Then I don't even get to watch Dexter until midnight. He even wanted to stop after 1 episode which was just shortly after the class at the gym started.

We did watch 3 episodes of Dexter. I want to watch more. Between each episode Dave wastes many minutes just telling me we aren't watching more. He just tortures me and wastes time then wonders why 3 episodes take up so much time.

After watching Rachel, Dave went up to bed. I decided to watch Biggest Loser. I was falling asleep near the end of it but still watched Cougar Town when that was over.  Then I watched the rest of Unforgettable that I had started a few days earlier. Well now I was getting awake so I watched One Tree Hill and then 90210 after that. I finally went up to bed at 1:45 AM.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

12:50:59 AM - I wait for Dave to go to bed. Poly waits for me to go to bed. Poly doing it is cuter.
12:28:07 PM - We need groceries. I'm having cereal for lunch.
07:08:06 PM - my feet hurt from so much standing today. Also so much cleaning.
08:10:46 PM - How often do you get to dine outside in mid March? Well I am now

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.